Description
Improve handling efficiency and protection
Vacuum formed trays are perfect for enhancing your totes or handling containers due to the improved protection they offer for your parts or components.
Ideal for manufacturing industries, vacuum formed packaging inserts can be tailored to offer a precise fit. This aids handling, retrieval and also eliminates movement within the container to reduce damage. They are also ideal for clean room and applications that require ESD protection.
Can be re-used and washed without losing any of its ESD properties.
Key Benefits:
- Lightweight for ease of handling.
- Minimises movement (and therefore damage) during handling.
- Can be tailored to your product / component(s) for optimum fit.
- Retain shape and rigidity when removed from totes.
- Can also be layered in totes for further efficiency.
- Easy to clean and water / oil / grease resistant.
- Can mould in part numbers, instructions etc.
- Can fit standard totes, or be manufactured to custom sizes.
- Thin material / nesting for saving space when not in use.
- ESD safe (conductive) versions available.
- Ideal for high volume requirements, and protecting high value items.
Improve Handling Efficiency / Productivity
There are a number of ways in which use of vacuum formed trays can improve your handling efficiency and productivity.
Firstly, vac formed packaging inserts are extremely light in weight. This means they do not impact the safety and ease of handling of the exterior tote / container.
They can also be designed so that they can be layered within a tote, increasing the number of parts moved per trip, and therefore your improving your operatives’ productivity. Unlike Correx® dividers, they can also be easily removed from the totes whilst maintaining their shape / retaining their contents.
The nature of their design means they can often “nest” when not in use – saving storage space and allowing for more efficient return transit.
As vacuum formed trays are effectively moulded, it is possible to add part or batch numbers to the trays, along within any other important information that could aid the individual transporting the parts / components, or using them on the production line.
Whilst sampling and tooling costs are higher than comparable foam dunnage or plastic division sets, their low unit costs also make vac formed trays ideal for higher volume requirements.
Part Protection
A key benefit of using tote or packaging inserts of any type is to minimise movement within the outer container during transit or handling. This movement is the most common cause of damage to parts, components and products either during movement around your production facility or wider supply chain.
As with foam dunnage, Correx® divisions or even Bubble-board inserts, vac formed plastic insert trays can prevent this movement – and the resultant damage – by housing each item within its own recess or “pocket”.
Vac formed trays vs foam inserts.
Whilst reusable packaging inserts with standard shapes / sizes of recess are available, the key advantage with vacuum forming is that (similar to high end engineered foam inserts) the recess can be shaped to the specific shape of your product or part.
Their main advantage over foam inserts however is that they do not suffer from “shedding” of dust or particles which can contaminate parts or components. This makes them ideal for clean room applications too.
Besides this, ESD versions are available to offer further protection for any parts or components that may be sensitive to static. However, whilst foam dunnage is also available in conductive grades, the surface contact of foam on specific areas of the items being transported can result in short circuiting or damage.
Vac formed trays avoid this through greater control of the surface area coming into contact with the insert.
